Saxima says: This is my first Super Smash Brothers fanfiction, and it was sort of an idea I was playing around with while thinking about writing a more sentient version of the Subspace Emissary. Enjoy.

Odd Secrets

"I believe she was last in the tennis court, playing a match with Samus," Marth answered while sitting in a chair on the veranda of the garden and maze. "Why do you need her?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow, pausing the shining of his sword.

As Ike was walking back into the Mansion, he gave a wave over his shoulder, "Sparring terms." he replied simply, and when gone, Marth shrugged, going back to his previous task.

It was just as normal a day as there ever was in the Mansion; all fighters were going about their lives outside the arena, busy with this or that. Outside of matches and brawls, most of the fighters were usually pretty calm ( except for the kids, who always seemed to be up to something ) and generally had no quarrels with one and other. The occasional tussle broke out over "cheating" on getting a Smash Ball and other silly things like that, but everyone mostly liked each other.

Ike didn't really understand how one could get a Smash Ball by "cheating". It seemed simple enough; hit the glowing rainbow sphere before someone else did enough times, and it's yours - unless they knock it out of you. In that case, it was the original catcher's fault for not being careful enough.

Disregarding Marth's directions ( he kind of forgot them, actually, ) Ike walked into the rooming section of the Mansion and headed for Princess Zelda's quarters. He didn't exactly know which room hers was, but each of the doors had a small plaque made of platinum with each fighter's respective symbol - all of which were different. While Ike's was a flaming sword with a shred piece of cloth tied to its handle, Zelda's was the crest of the Royal Family of Hyrule, with a flow of water passing through it.

He looked at each door's plaque and then found the symbol and door that he was looking for. Ike walked up to the door and knocked on it, all business. For a brief moment, silence settled around him, and then from the inside of the room, a stirring sounded, and then door opened moments later.

"Good afternoon, Ike." Sheik greeted, and Ike faltered slightly.

He wasn't used to seeing Zelda as Sheik outside of the arena, but he made sure his slight uncomfort went unnoticed, and he cleared his throat. "Good afternoon, Princess." he said, and Sheik also faltered, pulling up the cowl that covered his mouth a little. "I've come to set terms for our spar, tomorrow."

"Ah, yes. Do you have anything particular in mind?"

The two began to speak of terms, stages, and everything else that would be set for their practice Brawl tomorrow. After his original abashed greeting, Ike spoke to Sheik normally. He never questioned why or when Zelda what Sheik, not outside of fights. He momentarily wondered if any of the other fighters ever asked her about it, but decided not to mention it at all.

"Until tomorrow, then." Sheik saw Ike off, and then closed the door.

Since he had nothing else to do now, the fighter began a trip for the athletic courts that lay just outside the Mansion. Ike wasn't exactly avid in any of them, except maybe soccer on a good day, but there were others who liked football and basketball. Snake was particularly good at all of them, and the two often played soccer matches together with Mario.

Falco and Fox gave him a brief wave as he passed by a room where the two were sparring, and then Ike was outside, feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin again. He walked down the steps leading to a pathway that encircled a marble statue of the Smash crest, which doubled as a fountain. He stopped at it for a moment and pulled a coin out of his pocket; a silver one.

Irrelevant as it seemed, flipping a silver coin into this fountain always seemed necessary, most all the residents did it.

He continued passed the fountain crest and down towards the tennis courts where he expected Peach to be playing doubles with Nana and Popo, Samus being her partner. There were a few spectators, and he pulled up a spot next to Link who was watching with enthusiasm.

"Cool, you're just in time," Link said, not even having to look at Ike to know he was there, "Samus and Zelda — who knew they were both such great players?"

At the comment, Ike raised an eyebrow and got a better look at the court and its players. Samus was on one side, looking focused as always, and then on the other . . .

"Link, what time is it?" he asked with great concern that the other warrior seemed to miss in the excitement of the match.

"4:52," he replied, his eyes lighting up, "Got a date?"

Ike snorted at the last bit and then recalled the time he had gone up to see Zelda before, only to find Sheik instead. It had been 4:47pm, then.

"How long has this match been going?" he then asked, starting to feel confused.

"At least twenty minutes." Link replied, still not sensing the strangeness in Ike's voice.

The latter knit his eyebrows together; that didn't make any sense . . . If Zelda was here, playing with Samus — a match that had been going on for at least twenty minutes — then who had Ike been talking to in Zelda's room? This was the reason for confusion; there couldn't be two Zeldas . . . Right? Considering the technology and magic involved in the brawls and tournaments, the idea wasn't a completely outrageous one . . .

Duplication of the fighters in brawls were not uncommon, but they were computer projections, despite the strange bit of magic that went into the stage set up and some of the items, but outside of the arena? Duplicates roaming around freely was unheard of. A glitch in the system, maybe? No, that wouldn't make much sense, especially for it to happen outside of the arena . . .

Ike rubbed at his temples, focusing on Zelda in the tennis court.

. . . Come to think of it, maybe it hadn't been the first time he had faced something like this. He had been in a few brawls with both a Sheik and a Zelda, but he thought that was just part of the duplication program — was it really? Sometimes, Zelda talked about Sheik like she — err, it? He . . .? They — were/was a different person; referring to them in third person. Link did it sometimes, too.

Maybe he had heard a conversation between Ganondorf and Meta Knight ( Ike really had nothing else to refer to him as ) about Sheik. Ganondorf knew both Link and Zelda, and the way he talked about Zelda and her male counterpart, it was like they were different people.

It was definitely safe to say they had different personalities. Their appearances were different. Their voices were different. They were pretty . . . just different all around. They didn't even have the same hair color.

In his unusual flurry of thoughts, Ike didn't realize that he was walking back into the Mansion, and heading back towards Zelda's room. Before he knew it, he was standing in front of her door again, staring at the platinum plaque with deep concentration.

In a teams brawl, sometimes Zelda and Sheik ( who Ike had previously thought was a duplicate — the matter was still confusing ) were on the same side. They worked well together, and it was almost like Sheik wasn't a duplicate from the program at all. He couldn't recall the details of the program ( he didn't care about it or its details as long as it did its job ), but the duplicates weren't sentient, right? He never paid attention to that . . .

He knocked on the door, barely thinking about it.

Zelda was a girl, a princess, and Sheik was a boy, a skilled fighter/ninja type. Their styles were different, nothing was even remotely the same, and Sheik didn't use magic, save for here and there. More than that, now that he thought about it. Electricity, some healing, and — the stream of thought was becoming way too convoluted. Maybe he was thinking too much into it.

"Hello again," came Sheik's not-so-close-to-Zelda's voice, and Ike found himself staring. Not in any sort of admiration, or adoration, but in pure thought and confusion.

"You're not Zelda," he stated blankly, and a look of surprise ( shock? ) passed over Sheik's face with the blink of an eye.

"What are you talking about, of course I am." Sheik said with just the right amount of waiting, his tone even and calm.

"Transform, then."

In a flash of radiant pastel light, Zelda stood in front of Ike and it was the warrior's turn to look surprised, but his facial reaction lasted much longer. When that feeling passed, his face heated up, and he was embarrassed. Of course he had thought too much into it. Why worry about that kind of thing, anyway? It was unimportant, and not really life-saving informa —

Ike Greil wasn't normally a observant person, but when something red caught his eye, blaring red pressed against lightly tanned skin, he narrowed his eyes, and then looked back up at "Zelda". "She doesn't have a tattoo on the side of her shoulder," he said, taking a nod at her left arm. "You're not Zelda." he once again stated, now feeling more bold.

For a long time, Ike stood outside of the room while she stood inside of it, and the door was open while the two stared each other down. Eventually, Zelda sighed, and in a flash of light that was much darker than the one before, Sheik was standing before Ike again, his face was resigned and a bit flushed.

He put a tanned hand to his forehead, "The princess isn't going to be thrilled upon hearing this." he murmured, and then motioned for Ike to come into the room once more.

Over tea ( no one could ever utter that Ike wasn't cultured, now ), Sheik explained the situation with his and Zelda's body, and the long history of the Royal Family of Hyrule and the shadow tribe of Sheikans. Zelda and Sheik weren't the same person, but they switched through teleportation, for the purpose of being involved with the Smash Tournaments and living in the Mansion.

The two of them shared a telepathic link for communication where, when one was finished with their business, they could teleport in and out of the situation in the blinding pastel light. It was just easier to pass them off for the same person and get off without having to explain, and having to register as completely separate fighters. A troublesome and tedious situation, Sheik called that.

To Ike's credit, he was the only person ( besides Link ) who knew about this set up.

"What I find even more impressive is that you discovered it in an extremely short amount of time." Sheik continued, looking out the window towards the athletic courts where his counterpart was. "It was a fault on my part about the tattoo, which sealed my case. Had you not noticed, I believe we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"Probably right." Ike said, short and to the point.

The other peered at him closely, and Ike looked away. The red eyes were a little off-putting — it was almost as if Sheik could read his own mind. "What will you do now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Now that you know our secret." Sheik further pressed, feeling uncomfortable with someone else besides Link knowing, because of a certain dark wizard.

"Continue just as I always have." Ike replied cautiously, somehow feeling that there was a right answer to this question. "This doesn't effect anything. You're still a fighter, Zelda is still a fighter, I'm still a fighter. I have no reason to use this information for anything else. Doesn't seem like there's anything else to use it for, anyway."

Sheik hummed in reply finishing the rest of his tea and then tying his hair back into a loose ponytail.

After a bit more conversation, Ike took his leave and Sheik watched him go, still a little impressed. He had always thought Ike Greil was more brawn than brain, but sometimes even the best of them fooled well. He clicked his tongue at his own carelessness though and thought of what to tell Zelda. She would more than likely, most certainly be . . . not happy.

Ah, well. It would be another one off their shoulders, and they would be more careful from now on.